Japan’s Big Three Report Sales Surges

TOKYO—Japan’s three biggest car makers reported April surges in domestic production and sales, highlighting their recoveries after last year’s earthquake and tsunami battered supply chains and dragged down demand.

Japan’s biggest car maker by volume, Toyota Motor Corp., said Monday that domestic production soared more than fivefold last month from a year earlier, to 275,761 vehicles, an impressive first month for the fiscal year.

Japan’s auto industry suffered one of its worst-ever months in April of last year, after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 severely disrupted their parts-supply networks. Toyota and Honda posted their largest-ever productions declines in April 2011, with plunges of 78% and 81%, respectively. Nissan’s output fell by nearly half.

Autumn flooding in Thailand dealt another setback, but Japan’s biggest auto makers mostly had brought their supply chains back online by the end of last year.

The companies forecast that solid production would lift their earnings for the current fiscal year, which runs through March, despite the persistent strength of the yen. The currency’s strength hurts the competitiveness of Japanese-made products abroad and decreases the value of overseas earnings when they are brought back to Japan.

“I just hope that it will be a quiet and safe year,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a news conference this month.

Toyota on Monday said its domestic sales nearly tripled to 107,826 in April from a year earlier on solid demand for hybrid and other fuel-efficient vehicles, supported by government purchasing incentives. Toyota’s exports increased nearly sixfold to 180,050 as shipments to all regions rose.

Nissan said its domestic sales rose 64% to 39,413, while its exports more than tripled to 52,660.

Honda said it sold 55,500 vehicles in Japan, slightly more than double its year-earlier figure. It exported 217,977 vehicles, more than triple the year-earlier level.

Japanese car makers are banking on emerging markets and a recovery in the U.S. to bolster global sales. But it was uncertain to what extent those regions can contribute to higher domestic output, since the yen’s strength makes it difficult to export vehicles profitably.

The car makers said they expect government incentives at home to continue helping output and sales at least through September, the end of the fiscal first half.